Goggles?

Bot1

Hi all

Is there a benefit to wearing goggles for MTB?

At the moment I just wear a cheap pair of safety glasses. However I have noticed these are actually prohibitive if the weather is anyway damp as they steam up or get wet and my vision is then impaired.

Would goggles help with this?

Cheers
Bot

ec18

Depends what you're doing, I bought a pair but only really use them on up lift days and keep the safety goggles like you have for trail centre days

Bot1

ec18 wrote: »

Depends what you're doing, I bought a pair but only really use them on up lift days and keep the safety goggles like you have for trail centre days

Why the difference?

I mostly ride trail centre with preference for natural or enduro-style trails.

Very seldom uplift or bike park

ec18

just i find that the glasses are handier taking them on and off at trail centres when I'm doing a lot of pedalling, where as with the uplift I'm happy enough to leave the goggles on the whole time

Bot1

ec18 wrote: »

just i find that the glasses are handier taking them on and off at trail centres when I'm doing a lot of pedalling, where as with the uplift I'm happy enough to leave the goggles on the whole time

Do you find a difference in the fogging up or getting misty?

ec18

not especially i generally only use the goggles in really ****e conditions so was more muck than fog was the problems

Tenzor07

Googles for racing only i'd say, and then you have to deal with Tear-offs.
Or use them if you're off to a bike park in the alps.

For everyday use a pair of sunglasses would be fine..IMO.

steamsey

I think it depends on two things:

1 - Terrain. If there's mud, stones etc flying around, you might need to protect your eyes from this.
2 - Your eyes. My eyes water at speed and this affects my vision. A lot of peoples' don't. Goggles were a game changer for me.

No steaming up problems with good goggles.

Use my goggles at every race - never used a tear off. If a bit of mud gets on there I can usually find a micro second to wipe it off.

Smith do sport sunglasses which do a really good job but it takes goggles to keep all the air away from your eyes.

Jonesy101

I got ski goggles and road cycling glasses from wish.com and have to say both are fantastic and about 1/10th price of real thing. I ski a lot and cycle a lot so feel i know what im talking about and before you say it I care about my eyes like im sure most people do

covey123

steamsey wrote: »

but it takes goggles to keep all the air away from your eyes.

Very true too for those freezing cold winter days, goggles are great for keep your eyes from watering up when getting blasted with cold air

MBSnr

^^^
Bolle safety glasses from Screwfix. Sounds mad but they are decent. About 12 Euro each.
Polycarbonate
Anti-Scratch Lens
Grade F Impact Lens
Optical Class: 1
100% UV Protection
Anti-Mist
Protects Against Flying Debris

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/bolle-silium-smoke-lens-safety-specs/89563
https://www.screwfix.ie/p/bolle-contour-esp-clear-lens-safety-specs/95382

Full range here
https://www.screwfix.ie/search?search=bolle+safety

Buy one tinted and one clear. Break them and it's 12 Euro to replace. No point spending any more...

Bot1

MBSnr wrote: »

^^^
Bolle safety glasses from Screwfix. Sounds mad but they are decent. About 12 Euro each.
Polycarbonate
Anti-Scratch Lens
Grade F Impact Lens
Optical Class: 1
100% UV Protection
Anti-Mist
Protects Against Flying Debris

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/bolle-silium-smoke-lens-safety-specs/89563
https://www.screwfix.ie/p/bolle-contour-esp-clear-lens-safety-specs/95382

Full range here
https://www.screwfix.ie/search?search=bolle+safety

Buy one tinted and one clear. Break them and it's 12 Euro to replace. No point spending any more...

Pretty much what I'm using at the moment.
Bolle Rush bought on amazon for ~€8.
Does the job.

Consensus seems to be that goggles don't bring anything extra except maybe for very cold windy days.

Lemming

Never has the maxim "you get what you pay for" been so apt for a thread.

Stop looking at riding glasses like you would a spare inner tube. They should last you for a very long time (longer than most bikes at any rate). That being said, you don't need to break the bank either.

MBSnr

Lemming wrote: »

Never has the maxim "you get what you pay for" been so apt for a thread.

Stop looking at riding glasses like you would a spare inner tube. They should last you for a very long time (longer than most bikes at any rate). That being said, you don't need to break the bank either.

OK... So what's your breaking the bank limit for glasses?

Lemming

MBSnr wrote: »

OK... So what's your breaking the bank limit for glasses?

You can get a decent pair for south of €100. I have a pair of light, comfortable Rad8 MTB glasses that cost £70 (I won them in a competition, I had never heard of the company before doing so). They are now my go-to glasses both on and off the bike.

I also have a pair of Oakley A-Wires that I bought back in 2003/2004 for considerably more than the above, even accounting for inflation. That's some 17 years of near constant use. How many posters have bikes still in frequent usage that are even half as old? Not many.

I fully expect the £70 glasses to last just as long as the Oakleys unless of course I do something dumb like fall on my eye sockets, in which case I've got more to worry about anyway.

Edit: the cheaper glasses are - I dare say - more comfortable than the expensive ones and the only difference being that the Oakley lenses are rated to a higher tolerance, namely stopping shotgun ball-bearings. Since I don't intend to visit any war-zones any time soon, I'm probably safe in that regard.

I also have E.S.S. ballistic glasses & googles; for cycling I'd use neither.

MBSnr

Lemming wrote: »

You can get a decent pair for south of €100. I have a pair of light, comfortable Rad8 MTB glasses that cost £70 (I won them in a competition, I had never heard of the company before doing so). They are now my go-to glasses both on and off the bike.

I also have a pair of Oakley A-Wires that I bought back in 2003/2004 for considerably more than the above, even accounting for inflation. That's some 17 years of near constant use. How many posters have bikes still in frequent usage that are even half as old? Not many.

I fully expect the £70 glasses to last just as long as the Oakleys unless of course I do something dumb like fall on my eye sockets, in which case I've got more to worry about anyway.

Edit: the cheaper glasses are - I dare say - more comfortable than the expensive ones and the only difference being that the Oakley lenses are rated to a higher tolerance, namely stopping shotgun ball-bearings. Since I don't intend to visit any war-zones any time soon, I'm probably safe in that regard.

I also have E.S.S. ballistic glasses & googles; for cycling I'd use neither.

Fair enough. It's horses for courses. I think you might be the exception minding them for 17yrs. I've bought expensive sunglasses before and it only takes one incident to regret the purchase. I've a lovely pair at the bottom of the Med sea. As such I'd much rather spend 10 quid on a pair that pretty much do the exact same job for the bike and the beach. I have more expensive ones that I keep away from sand and getting scratched, damaged, dropped or lost whilst out on the bike.

Lemming

MBSnr wrote: »

Fair enough. It's horses for courses. I think you might be the exception minding them for 17yrs. I've bought expensive sunglasses before and it only takes one incident to regret the purchase. I've a lovely pair at the bottom of the Med sea. As such I'd much rather spend 10 quid on a pair that pretty much do the exact same job for the bike and the beach. I have more expensive ones that I keep away from sand and getting scratched, damaged, dropped or lost whilst out on the bike.

It's not the 17 year old pair that I'm bringing attention to. Let me put it a different way because I think I've made my argument poorly;

People think nothing of dropping €50+ on a pair of carbon handlebars in the latest clearance sales, or the same on a single tyre. They'll reason with themselves about sinking €100+ on a pair of shoes or other item of clothing, or even more on components without a second thought. All of the above have a finite life-span, some far shorter than others, some depending on how hard you push them. They will then seek out the cheapest piece of plastic to stick in front of their eyeballs and then fight said plastic for comfort, fit, steaming, or whatever other issue one might find. Take Bot1's first post - with respect to Bot1 I'm not singling you out here - acknowledging that they're struggling with a cheap pair of garden-variety safety glasses steaming up. How much time gets wasted on a ride because you need to stop or slow down and sort glasses before carrying on? Those glasses will probably never have been designed with sports activity in mind, never mind cycling more than likely.

So why limit yourself before you even start a days cycling? Much like a lot of other things - particularly clothing, footwear, and bags - the less time you have to spend fighting your kit, the more time you get to enjoy riding your bike and the less likely you are to get distracted at a moment that you really wish you weren't.

I get that someone might not be able to afford more than €10/20, or find themselves stuck short of a pair for whatever reason and that's what is to hand at short-notice to "make do". You just gotta deal with whatever hand you get dealt sometimes. It blows. I've probably still got, buried in a forgotten box somewhere at the family home, that first pair of sh1tty wrap-around £10 (pre-euro) "cycling" glasses that I bought because it was all I could afford being a 14 year old back in the good old 1990s. It wasn't until I tried better glasses that I realised just how crap crap glasses are, in every way.

MBSnr

Lemming wrote: »

It's not the 17 year old pair that I'm bringing attention to. Let me put it a different way because I think I've made my argument poorly;

Snip

Your first post was slightly dictatorial in fairness....

It's down to individual choice.
Personally spending that much on something that makes incredibly little difference in my riding ability or performance is not worth it. I'd consider it a waste of money as I don't wear them all the time to even begin to get the value out of them. Sure they might be better but 7 to 10 times better than the 10 Euro ones for the price? No probably not. Spending the money instead on better tyres or better components that improve things by a larger measure is more beneficial in my mind.

Some would also argue that glasses used by the average person only have a life span of a few years regardless of their initial cost anyhow, due to circumstances of use.

muckwarrior

I've had 20 quid glasses and I currently have a set of Oakleys that cost as much as a half decent second-hand mountain bike. Honestly, I see no difference in quality or comfort. I only got the Oakleys because I could get prescription lenses for them. Even those are almost fecked now as they scratch if you look at them funny.